A series of composed performances saw Draper break new ground in New York, reaching the semi-finals without dropping a set.
While he played calm and collected, there were questions about how the southpaw would fare against an opponent of Sinner’s caliber.
Draper’s first four opponents were ranked below him, and he avoided a third-round appearance against Spanish superstar Carlos Alcaraz after the French Open and Wimbledon champion suffered shock losses in the second round.
Quarterfinal opponent Alex de Minaur, the 10th seed, has also been plagued by health issues.
In the opening exchanges of the semi-finals, Draper pushed away Sinner – who appeared to have put behind him the controversy of testing positive for a banned substance earlier this year – but three double faults proved costly , the Italian decisively broke serve at 6-5.
Then Draper got nervous in a strange second set.
While clearly struggling, he held his serve against four break opportunities from Sinner and then twice fell ill on court after scoring.
During a wild ninth game in which his vomiting caused a brief pause in play while the court was being cleared, the 23-year-old Sinner fell while catching a ball near a billboard behind the baseline, injuring himself in the process His left wrist.
Two people needed treatment at the same time – a rare sight.
Sinner upped the ante in the tiebreak, hitting the baseline hard to push Draper back behind the baseline and making an error to take a two-set lead.
The daunting task Draper faced – with his family watching, including mother Nikki, whose flight left London for New York at 2am on Friday – seemed insurmountable.
Draper has shown the resilience to continue competing against the best players in the world, refusing to retire as he had to do many times early in his career.
But his resolve eventually wavered and Sinner rattled off the final four motos en route to victory in three hours and three minutes.
“Jannik has been playing at a very high level. I had opportunities here and there, but I didn’t take them,” Draper said.
“Obviously, I wasn’t feeling the best and struggled in certain parts of the race, but Janik beat me fair and square.”
